Cory Booker and John Lewis hold sit-in to protest GOP health care bill

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On Monday evening, Senator Cory Booker and Representative John Lewis sat down on the steps of the Capitol in order to protest the Senate Republicans’ health care bill, and the sit-in grew organically over time from the two of them sitting on the steps to an entire group discussing health care and ways to protest.

The bill, which is called the Better Care Reconciliation Act, was only just revealed after Senate Republicans worked on the bill in secret, and now, Republicans are pushing for a vote on the bill by the end of the week. The Congressional Budget Office scored the bill on Monday, announcing that in addition to cutting Medicaid, the bill would leave 22 million more uninsured people.

So, on Monday evening, Booker and Lewis took to the Capitol steps in order to talk to people and to protest the bill. Booker live-streamed the event for nearly four hours as more and more people gathered, elected officials and activists and others all coming together in protest of the bill.

“So John Lewis and I are going to sit down on the Capitol steps for a while to protest Senate Republican’s efforts to repeal health care and give voice to millions of Americans who believe that affordable health care is a human right,” Booker posted alongside the Facebook live stream. “Watch, share & join us.”

2. Those two guys on the Capitol steps: NJ Sen @CoryBooker and civil rights hero @repjohnlewis. Another shot of the beginning: pic.twitter.com/lvYdbnFkGU

— Ben Wikler (@benwikler) June 27, 2017

6. The person I was trying to meet up with told me he was on the East Capitol steps on the Senate side. I found him, and saw this: pic.twitter.com/WkXG5vIWas

— Ben Wikler (@benwikler) June 27, 2017

“By sitting in, by sitting down, you’re really standing up,” Lewis said.

Ben Wikler, the Washington director of activist group Moveon.org, described the event as “kinda magical” as it grew from the two elected representatives to a larger group, all of whom were passing around Booker’s phone as the live stream continued.

Democrats also held a talkathon on Monday in protest of the bill, and during the sit-in event, other ways to protest against the bill, both for elected officials and for on-the-ground activists, were discussed.